


The Lovers, The Dreamers, And Me

by the_madhatter



Series: Legion One-Shots [2]
Category: Legion (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mutant Powers, Mutant Reader, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 16:55:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10598220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_madhatter/pseuds/the_madhatter
Summary: The reader is a mutant who lived with David in Clockworks.  They left when David left and now lives with David, Syd, and the rest of the gang.  Kind of angsty since David and the Reader are friends and Syd is still in the picture.Warnings:of mental illness, hint of death but no one actually dies





	

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys so much! It means a lot to see that my work is liked :) I’m sorry in advance if some of the characters seem out of character and if Syd seems more like an antagonist in this. Also I really love the song Rainbow Connection and I will probably incorporate it into more fics. I apologize for any errors I missed. AND I’m sorry if this seems unfinished and plot-less. 
> 
> The ~~ indicate a switch from present to memory.

David was a difficult person to room with, but then again, so were you.  The two of you often swapped stories about why you were where you were.  He had told you about his years as a junkie and you had told him about yours as an arsonist.  He told you about Lenny and how she was in here with him.  You told him about your father who had practically taught you how to be a criminal, raising you in that life.  For the six years you shared a room with him you swapped stories, never seeming to run out of any.

He paced in his room, the voices were loud this time, you could tell.  He told you, when the two of you first became roommates, to leave him be when he was like this but you never could.  “Why are there so many songs about rainbows?  And what’s on the other side?”  You sang to calm him down.  He said your voice got lost with the others when you sang, but it always seemed to calm him down a bit.  You hugged him and stroked his hair.  Careful to keep your temperature down the entire time.  “Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection.  The lovers, the dreamers, and me.”  You finished.  And he was physically less tense. 

“Why is it that you are always so- so warm?”  He asked, you could tell he was in pain but he smiled at you anyway. 

“I’ve always been hot.”  You joked. 

~~

You thought back on the memory with a smile.  Ptonomy looked back at you, unsure if he should smile back or not.  “Kinda glad you guys brought me back too.  I don’t think I could have lasted another minute in that place.”  You said, letting go of the table and flickering a fire between your finger tips. 

“Why were you there in the first place?”  Melanie asked you, watching you carefully. 

“Pretty much the same thing as Syd.  People can’t touch me.  Well, they can, but they risk getting third degree burns.  Especially if I’m not expecting it.  People thought I was antisocial, plus with the added record of starting fires..”  You let your sentence trial off. 

“But you and David were touching in your memory.”  Wallace was confused. 

“I can lower my temperature briefly when I’m calm.  But in the case of David I was able to train myself to lower it when I had to calm him down.   It wasn’t for as long, but it worked.  The song was how I could keep track of how long I could stay cool enough to touch him.”  You put the fire out and continued speaking.  “He doesn’t understand what he can do.  He’s convinced that it’s still an illness.”  Your head drooped a bit. 

“Thank you, Y/N.  You may head back.  We’ll talk to you when we return.”  Melanie said, letting you out of the memory cube. 

You shrugged and went to go find David.  When you did find him he looked better than you expected he would.  “Hey man.”  You greeted him and he nodded back.  “Memory work went pretty well, thanks for asking.”  You sat next to him and swung your legs a bit. 

“I thought I was supposed to be the one who read minds?”  He joked. 

“I just know you too well, I guess.”  You shrugged and nudged his shoulder.  That’s when you felt it.  Your shirt got hotter.  “Shit.”  You groaned and started to pat out the flames.  David jumped up and looked a little shocked.  “I didn’t ruin your shirt did I?”  You asked, looking over to him once the flames were out. 

He looked down at his own shirt.  “No.  It’s fine, just a little hole.”  He looked over at his sleeve and then back at you with reassuring eyes.

“I’m sorry.  I forgot.  I don’t normally forget.”  You scolded yourself.  It wasn’t like you to act so carelessly, but you thought with David maybe things between you could cause you to cool down some.  You apparently thought wrong. 

“Y/N it’s okay, it’s just a shirt.  We both know how bad it can get so this was nothing.”  He was blunt with you and you let out a tight laugh. 

“Yeah I guess we do know how bad it can get.  Poor Mrs. Godfrey.”  You sighed, recalling the woman who thought she could hug you on your second day in Clockwork.  It had also been David’s second day and it was how the two of you became friends.  It gave the two of you something to talk about after being assigned to room with each other. 

“May she rest in peace.”  David added, seemingly gone from the conversation and focusing on the floor below him.  There was a slight crease on his forehead. 

“Is it the voices again?”  You asked, trying to keep your distance.  He was silent, but gave you a small nod.  You focused on cooling down, shutting your eyes and clearing your mind helped for him and you both.  “Why are there so many songs about rainbows?  And what’s on the other side?”  You began, feeling yourself cool so you moved closer and wrapped your arms around him in your usual embrace.  He was getting less tense so you continued to sing.  His forehead, which had been scrunched up before was now relaxed.  You stroked his hair, your tune carrying through the room.  “Rainbows are visions but only illusions.  Rainbows have nothing to hide.  So we’ve been told, some chose to believe it.  I know they’re wrong wait and see.  Someday we’ll find it the rainbow connection.  The lovers, the dreamers, and me.”  You finished the song, and to your amazement you were practically a normal temperature.  David noticed and looked up at you with a smile. 

“We complement each other, you and I.”  His voice sounded a little strained, but other than that he seemed to be feeling a little better, enough to not make any move to get away from you before you heated up again. 

You heard footsteps outside and looked up to see Syd standing in the doorway.  You jumped away from David and your body was immediately engulfed in flames.  “Y/N.  It’s alright.  It’s alright.”  David held up his hands in front of you, not too close though, to try and calm you down.  “It’s just Syd.”  He repeated, which didn’t help.  So you sang the song quietly to yourself in hopes that would work.  Over your own voice and the fire roaring in your ears; you heard David’s voice, though it was strained, singing along with you.  The flames dissipated but you still felt hotter than normal.  David watched the flames go down and he made a move towards you but you threw your hands up to stop him. 

“Still too hot, I’m afraid.”  Your tone was broken and defeated as you watched Syd eye you from across the room.  David looked back at her with pleading eyes to help you too but she just openly gaped between the two of you. 

You knew she felt a little threatened by your relationship with David.  You thought it was because of her abilities that kept her at a greater distance.  But David loved her and you were aware of this.  He loved you too, but it was a different kind of love.  You had feelings for David as well, but you looked past them, to help him since he was the closest friend you had.  Whereas Syd, only focused on her feelings for him, which could end very badly.  Both you and David knew this, but he didn’t make any move to stop it.  Which you thought was a bad idea, but you weren’t in a position to say anything.

David couldn’t take his eyes off of you.  “Y/N.  Let me help you now.”  He whispered.  Then you were in a white room, a breeze drifted through the large French doors. 

“Where are we?”  You asked, looking around at the simplicity and beauty of the place. 

“I take Syd here.  It’s where we can be together.  I thought that it might help you to be here.  Help you cool down a little.”  He was completely honest with you. 

“Where is here, David?”  You asked, looking at him now. 

He moved towards you and placed his hands on either sides of your cheeks, you tired to pull away, afraid you would burn him.  “Someplace safe.”  He answered, his skin making contact with yours and you couldn’t help but lean into his touch. 

“But you take Syd here.”  You tried to pull away afraid now to encroach on her place with him. 

“Yes.  But if it helps you the way you help me then I don’t see the issue.”  He rubbed his thumbs across your cheeks.  You couldn’t tell him how you felt.  You didn’t know what it would do to him.  So you kept quiet and savored his touch for as long as possible.  It was as though time had slowed when you were with him in this white room.  Everything around you two had stopped and you couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy directed at Syd.  He shared this room with her too, this room was originally meant for her.  Your eyes wandered around the room, David had moved you both over to the bed and he held you as you had held him over the years.  You couldn’t bring yourself to protest any of it and you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him.  

“I thought you were just as crazy as I was when you told me you were made of fire.”  He recalled the day the two of you had met.  “How you ended up with me and not in prison?  I’ll never understand, but I’m grateful for it.”  He paused.  “I don’t know what I would have done without you, Y/N.”  He declared as he stoked your hair. 

You could feel the tears welling up in your eyes.  “I love you, David.”  You barely managed to get the words out, there was a part of you that was afraid he would take it the wrong way. 

“I love you too, Y/N.”  He replied without a second thought.  When the words left his lips your body went numb.  It was only you and David in that moment, in this place.  There was no danger, no D3, no Syd.  Just you and him.  Friends who complimented each other in the best way. 

You wrapped your arms around him, trying desperately to pull him closer to you.  He gripped you tighter.  “Now that you’ve shown me this place, I don’t think I ever want to leave.”  You let out a small laugh.  “We should go though.  We have work to do for Melanie.”  You added, cursing yourself for saying so.  David didn’t make a move to let you go, but you felt him nod. 

Then you were back, you could feel Syd’s eyes on you but you ignored them when you felt physically cooler.  David could sense this and moved to hug you.  “No flames.”  He smiled after letting you go. 

“No flames.”  You confirmed, matching his smile with your own. 

Once there was a moment of silence, Syd spoke up.  “David, we need to talk.”  Her voice was strained and you immediately felt yourself heat up again.  David made no move to let go of you.  Though you were sure he could feel it. 

“Deep breath in.  And then out.”  He whispered, so you did.  He held on for a few moments, then let you go.  Syd and David left you alone.

Your core temperature rising, you tried to focus your breathing while simultaneously trying not to think about what they needed to talk about.  You heard a knock and looked up to see Cary.  You gave him a small smile.  “May I?”  He asked, referring to if you if he could come in and sit.  You gave him a nod of approval.  “Melanie and I were discussing how you may also have an extremely powerful gift.  She and I would like your permission to run some tests?”  He asked.  You could see the nervousness pour off of him in waves. 

“Sure, Cary.  Anything to help.”  You agreed, too tired to argue against it. 

Cary hooked up a few monitors to you and told you to think of something happy.  He was monitoring your temperature as well as your brain waves.  Your mind automatically went to your time with David.  The only happy memories you have are the ones with him. 

~~

Quietly shutting your door behind you, you tip toed over to David.  Today had been a bad day for him and he ended up getting heavily sedated so you told him the two of you would have a fun night.  He was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling.  “Hey I got the marshmallows.”  You pulled the handful you stole from the kitchen out of your pockets.  David continued to stare at the ceiling, but you heard him grunt a little and you took that as a good sign.  “Now I just have to find those popsicle sticks from craft time and that bucket I pawned off the janitor.”  You talked through what you were doing for David.  He mentioned to you before when they medicated him, he used your voice to stay grounded.  Once you had everything gathered on the floor in between your beds you helped him sit up.  “Ready for s’mores without the chocolate and gram crackers since I couldn’t get a hold of those things?”  You asked him, he looked at you with drowsy eyes, but smiled up at you anyway.  “Down we go.”  You helped him down to the floor and propped him up on the side of the bed.  “Here wait.”  You grabbed your pillow and his and placed them behind his back.  “Comfortable?”  You asked him and he gave you a slight nod.  “Great.”  You smiled.  “Now, to get this fire going.”  You placed the popsicle sticks in the bucket, your hand still inside so David couldn’t see, you lit your finger and set the wood on fire.  You handed David a popsicle stick that had a marshmallow skewered on it. 

“I got it.”  He mumbled, holding the marshmallow over the bucket with a steadier hand than you thought he could.  “These would be better with the rest of what makes a s’more though.”  His speech was slurred but he managed to get out what he wanted to say. 

“The sass, David!”  You giggled, charring your treat.  You could see the skepticism in his eyes as you created the black coating.  “What?  It’s delicious and a little less messy since I couldn’t grab the rest of the stuff.”  You replied to his look.

“That’s not how you do it.  Slow.”  He said, trying to get some of his strength back but the drugs were still in his system.  You plucked the marshmallow off the stick and popped it in your mouth. 

“I’m going to grab you some water, maybe flush that shit out of your system faster.  Don’t go anywhere?”  You got up and headed down the hall with his glass in your hand.  Padding down the hall to the bathroom, you avoided all of the other patients that were still wandering the halls.  There were a few orderlies that you saw patrolling the halls, you had made it a goal to stay out of their way as well.  After getting David the glass of water, you quickly headed back to your room then shut the door behind you.  “Here you go.”  You handed him the glass, waiting for him to get a good grip of it before you let go. 

“Thank you, Y/N.  For everything.  I don’t know what I’d do without you.”  He grumbled between sips.

~~

“That’s great Y/N.”  You heard Cary say, bringing you out of your memory.  You felt cooler and you shot him a wide grin. 

“I believe you may be on to something.”  You said to him.  You knew positive memories could help cool you down, but you weren’t aware of how significant it could be.  “This is huge!  This means the memory work can be more than Melanie just getting to know my problems.  Controlling this is in the memories.”  You said as he unhooked his machines from you.  “But this also means the bad memories affect it too.”  You kept talking since he was too focused on his machines to respond.  He would mumble a few things now and then but you assumed it was to Kerry. 

You felt exhausted after your work with Cary.  It felt like you had been drained of all your energy.  You bypassed dinner and headed straight to bed, barely able to keep your eyes open.  “Y/N.”  David called your name as you walked past him and Syd.  You gave them both a small nod of acknowledgement, then shuffled your feet to bed.  You heard David get up and follow you but you ignored it.  “Y/N, Cary said you made a breakthrough today.”  David tried to make conversation with you.  You let out a hum to know you were listening.  Even your thoughts were minimal, your exhaustion taking full hold.  You thought to David, unable to form the words out loud, that you would talk tomorrow.  Though you were unsure if he heard it or not.  But he didn’t question you anymore after that so you assumed he had.

As soon as your head hit the pillow you were out. 

~~

You dreamt of fire.  Everything around you was engulfed in flames except for the building in front of you.  Your father stood beside you, his body consumed in the blistering heat.  “Y/N, if this building goes then you get presents for your birthday this year.”  His face was twisted, his mouth almost smiling at you. 

“The whole building?”  You asked, your voice that of a young child’s. 

“Pops only gets the insurance money if it’s the whole building, pumpkin.”  He patted you on the head and the fire that consumed his hand started to quickly flow from him to you.  The heat was comfortable, like it was always meant to be there. 

“But the people inside?”  Your voice, high already, managed to get even higher once it filled with panic. 

“Just do what I ask.”  He started to get angry with you.  You felt yourself get smaller and did as he asked.  Fire shot out of your hands and the building started to burn. 

~~

Jolting awake, you sat straight up in your bed.  You could feel your body shaking erratically.  “Y/N?”  David’s calm voice sounded so far away.  “Y/N, did you have another nightmare?”  He asked you but you couldn’t open your mouth to answer him so you just shook your head yes.  “It was just a nightmare.  It wasn’t real.”  He repeated the words you had said to him so many times before.  He kept his distance, unable to comfort you the way you always had comforted him.  He could just sit there and watch you shake, repeating that it was okay and that it wasn’t real.

It took twenty minutes before you could stop shaking.  But when you had, you had been able to look at him.  “Love you, David.”  You managed to get out the words, though they were shaky and barely audible he heard you. 

“I love you too, Y/N.”  He sounded sad when he said it though.  But you had been too tired to notice. 

“Can you stay a little longer?”  You asked him and he nodded, motioning for you to move over.  Your body was still hot but your exhaustion kept you from burning everything you touched.  “Cary had me think of a happy memory today.”  You looked up at the ceiling, but you felt his eyes on you when you spoke. 

He was on his side watching you, “What memory was it?”  He asked, curious. 

“When we made s’mores.”  You smiled, still not looking at him.  You felt him turn so he was lying on his back. 

“I vaguely remember that night, but there are bits and pieces where I can see that being a happy memory.”  He was honest with you. 

“You know that my nightmares actually happened.  They were real.”  You changed the subject. 

“I know, Y/N.”  He sighed. 

This time you were the one to turn on your side.  “Is everything okay?”  You asked, looking at him with an intensity you weren’t aware of having until he looked at you with the same sadness that matched his tone before. 

“Syd doesn’t think we can be just friends.  She wants me to see less of you.  She’s worried that being together will have an effect on the work I’m doing.”  He sounded so defeated when he spoke to you. 

Your face fell.  “She understands that we’re friends and helping each other through this, so why would she want to split us up?”  You were so confused.  Syd had been in Clockworks with the two of you, she knew that it was just a friendship between you and David.  Though you did admit it seemed like more than that sometimes and that you did have feelings that constituted as ‘more than friends’ feelings sometimes. 

“I’m not going anywhere, Y/N.  We’re helping each other and that all that matters right now.”  He was worried that what he was saying wouldn’t happen.  But you had been worried about the same thing, and worried that Syd was using what she had told David as an excuse for her jealousy. 

After his comment, neither of you spoke again.  You had been too tired to process what he said.  The two of you drifted into unconsciousness.  This time, there weren’t any interruptions.  No nightmares, no dreams, no outside world.  Just quiet darkness.  Your brains shutting off, leaving the two of you in blissful nothingness.      

**Author's Note:**

> This along with my other fics are originally posted on my tumblr: justawriterofthings. My request box is open. And thank you again for reading :)


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